Eleven tips if you’re not sure how to start writing--here are the first five:
- If you have several projects and can’t decide which one is best, just pick one anyway. Probably it’s the execution of the project that will make it best anyway, not just the idea.
- Figure out from whose perspective or viewpoint to tell your story. It may not be the obvious person. For instance, “To Kill A Mockingbird” could have been told by Atticus (the father), or the accused, but it gained from the loss of innocence of the young girl who tells the story.
- Do the least amount of research possible. Research is one of those areas that can capture you and hold your project hostage. If you hit something you don’t know, you can either look it up then or put in a placeholder and research it for the next draft.
- Start anywhere in the story. If you don’t know how it starts but you know a key scene in the middle, write that first. Then work forward and backward from that scene.
- Don’t judge while you’re writing. You can judge a sentence, of course, and change it but generally your job now is to move forward, full steam ahead. Judging is for later.
Next post: the other six. You'll also find lots more helpful information in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers.
